There are many countries that South Africans favour when they decide it's time to emigrate. Among those New Zealand is one of the favourites. Over the next few articles I will give you a better idea of why we chose New Zealand over the rest.

Let's start by telling you a bit more about New Zealand :

New Zealand is a tiny island country 11, 663 kilometers east of South Africa situated in the Pacific Ocean. Our nearest neighbours are Australia and the Pacific Islands. The area of sea between New Zealand and Australia is called the Tasman Sea, but is generally refered to as "the ditch" and is around 2000km wide

The country consists of two main islands and many smaller ones. The two islands don't have official names and are just refered to as the North Island and the South Island. (The smaller island you can see on the map above situated just below the South Island is called Stewart Island.).

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The country is situated on the boundary between two fault lines. These fault lines are moving towards each other at a rate of 45mm per annum. As a result there are around 14 000 earthquakes in New Zealand every year. Most so small that you can't feel them. It also means that there are volcanically active areas throughout the North Island.

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Being a country made up of islands there is also 18 000 kilometers of coastline that you can enjoy. In fact no matter where you live in New Zealand, you are never more than 130 kilometers away from the sea

The weather in New Zealand varies quite a bit depending on where you stay. The further south you go, the colder you can expect to get in winter. Auckland seldom gets frost in winter, yet places further south will be covered in snow. The summer months are wonderfully warm and outdoor activities are abundant then. With Auckland being on the same latitude as Cape Town, the temperatures are comparable.

The rainfall in New Zealand is also considerably higher than in South Africa with the result is things are a lot greener here. Even your grass tends to stay green during the winter as that is the rainy season here. It does however also rain during the summer months occasionally.

The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa (pronounced : Ah-tay-'n-row-'n) which means "Land Of the Long White Cloud". If you look at the satellite image above you can see why. Seriously large cloud masses form in this part of the world. Some linger and bring us rain for a week or more on end, others blow over within a day without even as much as a drop falling. Another name New Zealand is known by is "Godzone" which means "God's Own" because of the stunning beauty of the land.

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It is not certain where the first people landed in New Zealand, but it is thought to be between 700AD and 1300AD when Polynesian colonists first set foot on this untouched land. Until then the land had been dominated by birds believe it or not. New Zealand had no predators and was a very peaceful place. That changed dramatically when man arrived though. The early Maori were skilled seafarers and excellent fishermen. They formed many many tribes across New Zealand. These tribes not only fought each other, but also canibalised each other with the winning tribe dis-membering, cooking and eating their captives.

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In 1642 a Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to sight New Zealand. Although he did land, they soon left after several of the crew were killed by the Maori. It wasn't until James Cook arrived in 1769 when the Europeans landed for good. Various territorial wars and battles raged throughout New Zealand as late as the 1870's between Maori tribes as well as between Maori and Pakeha (Maori word for Europeans). Gradually however the Maori adopted the European way of doing things and the Pakeha adopted many Maori customs. One major thing that Kiwis from all sides of the spectrum do have in common is their love for the natural beauty of the country and the need to preserve it.

The founding document of New Zealand is called the Treaty of Waitangi. This is a document signed between the British government and the majority of the Maori tribes. The document contains three main agreements :

1. Maori ceded the sovereignty of New Zealand to Britain;
2. Maori gave the Crown an exclusive right to buy lands they wished to sell, and, in return, they were guaranteed full rights of ownership of their lands, forests, fisheries and other possessions; and that
3. Maori would have the rights and privileges of British subjects

There are however discrepancies between the English version and the translated Maori versions of the Treaty which allows for a difference in the interpretation between the two languages. These interpretations are still contested today.

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. What that basically means is that there is a democratically elected government in place that runs the country, yet the Queen of England is the head of state. The Queen does however not "run the show" here and the position is largely a ceremonial one.

New Zealand is thus in a very unique position where it actually has two national anthems : "God defend New Zealand" and "God save the Queen". "God save the Queen" is however very very seldom sung and "God defend New Zealand" is the anthem you will hear sung at events. "God defend New Zealand" consists of 5 verses. Very few New Zealanders will know all five though as traditionally only the first verse is sung - first in Maori, then repeated in English.

One interesting part of this association with England is that every year several Kiwis are knighted for service to the Queen and country.

The capital of New Zealand is situated in Wellington. The house of parliament is called the Beehive.

The national flag consists of a blue background with the Union Jack in the top left hand quarter and four red stars representing the Southern Cross star constellation in the right hand half. Because of the flag's similarity to that of Australia there is a drive to change the flag to a more uniquely Kiwi one. Other national symbols commonly used are the silver fern and the kiwi.

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With a population of just over 4 million and a land area of 268 680 km2 we have plenty of open spaces to explore. To give you a comparison, you can have a look at the table below

Many other nationalities have made New Zealand their home and South Africans are no exception.

Currently the ethnic breakdown of the country is roughly

Because of this cultural diversity in especially the major cities, you are able to buy and enjoy many different products, customs and festival throughout the year. To give you an example - you can walk into almost any given shopping centre and buy items like sushi, boerewors and imported English biscuits straight off the shelf.

The Maori culture is also widely promoted and participation in their cultural practices is encouraged among Kiwis.

New Zealand has 3 official languages, nl. English, Maori and sign language. With 98% of the population able to speak English it is by and large an English country. You will however hear all sorts of languages being spoken when walking around the mall, including plenty of Afrikaans.

Although there is no official religion, 56% of Kiwis consider themselves Christian, 35% as having no religion and the rest as having a different religion. Christian churches are as abundant in New Zealand as we were used to in South Africa.

The currency is the New Zealand Dollar and the country has a nominal GDP of US$128.492 billion compared to South Africa's US$300.4 billion. That gives you a per capita value of US$33 049 for New Zealand as opposed to US$5693 for South Africa. New Zealand is by all standards a first world, westernised country.

Due to our location compared to the rest of the world, exporting and importing is big business in New Zealand. The biggest export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing and forestry and our biggest company is the dairy giant Fonterra.

The education system is ranked 7th best in the world and is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. Most children however start school at the age of 5 already and continue for the full 13 year curriculum. The schools are rated via a decile system, the higher the decile of the school, the better the education provided at that school. In order to ensure that some schools don't become over-crowded while others remain empty, each school is placed in a "zone". You would then need to live in that school's zone in order to send your kids to that school. There are also state funded schools as well as private schools to choose from.

There are many universities, polytechnics (technikon) and colleges throughout New Zealand, each offers it's own courses as is the case in South Africa. The government has a Student Loan scheme whereby they offer you an interest free loan for your course fees, course related expenses as well as a weekly living allowance. This amount is then paid back as a percentage of your salary when you start working.

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Crime in New Zealand is well controlled and is in fact reducing per capita year on year, but as with all other countries there is still a fair amount. The types of crimes and the frequency of crimes in New Zealand is however significantly lower than that of South Africa. To give you an idea, in 2007 there were 45 murders reported of which 41 were solved. Highjackings are unheard of here. Petty crime, like house break-ins, theft from cars and graffiti, is however on the increase and domestic violence cases, especially among the Maori population, is a concern.

In New Zealand you can be called up to perform jury duties.

Shopping in New Zealand can be quite a happy affair as most items are imported so the stores need to sell their container loads before the next shipment arrives, which means you get huge "selling at cost" specials every few weeks. Shopping centres are generally like the old towns we were used to in South Africa, with more and more malls going up all the time. The malls around Auckland compare well with those around Johannesburg, they are however not as larger as East Gate, more comparable to the East Rand Mall. The biggest service and consumer industries are all dominated by larger franchised groups like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. There are also many Kiwi franchised brands. Service is generally fast, friendly and efficient. What does take some getting used to though is throwing in your own petrol and not tipping the waitress when dining out.

Banking in New Zealand is comparable to that of South Africa with 5 or 6 major banks well represented throughout the country. Most people use debit cards as opposed to cash as most shops accept them and the bank charges involved is pretty low. ATM's can be found almost anywhere you would need them.

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Driving in New Zealand is also on the left hand side of the road and it isn't much different to driving in South Africa. There are a few signs and rules that are different, most notably the left turn rule which takes some getting used to. The roads are well maintained with maintenance work mostly being done at night when the least amount of disruption to the traffic will occur.

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Earning a living in New Zealand is no different to South Africa, but the Kiwis don't always accomplish the same goals in the same way we did, they have their own Kiwi ways that work for them. The businesses in New Zealand are also smaller than in South Africa, so your chance of working for a huge 1000+ employee company is pretty slim. You will more likely be working for a company with 10 to 30 employees.

Starting a business in New Zealand is considered to be one of the easiest things to do by western standards. The competition is however just as tough as you were used to in South AFrica because there is a smaller pool of customers to draw from. Many ex-South Africans run very successful businesses here.

Sport is probably just as big in New Zealand as it is in South Africa with rugby, cricket and netball being the three most popular sports played. The most famous of all the teams is probably the All Blacks (rugby). Before international matches it is tradition for the Kiwi team to do the Haka, which is a Maori war dance.